Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Be A Hero

When I learned in history class about the Holocaust in Nazi Germany or the Native American Holocaust here or about slavery and then about segregation and racism or about the mistreatment of immigrants and women through out history, the thing that scared me the most was that so many people were complicit in such horrible behavior.

I started to look at my classmates and neighbors differently. I wondered who amongst them would go along with hatred and who would be heroic. Of course we'd all like to believe that we'd have been heroic had we been alive in those times but the math is against us. Most people were not heroic and if we did not have the benefit of hindsight we most likely would not have been either.

It feels dangerous to be too confident that I'd have done the right thing. I was tortured by this thought in my teen years. Yeah, I was a teenager, I would've found something to be tortured over but I really wanted some assurance that I wouldn't have been one of the fiends.

Eventually I realized that I had to let go of those ghosts. What mattered was that I look for opportunities to be heroic now or at the very least to not be a bigot, a hater, a fiend. And we have an opportunity now to be heroic. Please, take this opportunity. Be a hero.

Vote NO on 8.

Don't let the gay couples of CA pay for the sad state of marriage in our culture. Go after the divorces if that is your issue.And if it is a religious issue, please look at the truth of the proposition.It is not protecting your kids from being taught to be gay.It is not protecting your church.All it is doing is stopping gay couples from having the protections under law that straight couples enjoy through marriage. They are still going to be gay. They are still going to be in love. They can still move in right next to you. You can't stop that. but you can stop them from being treated like valued citizens in our great state, even though many of them are fire fighters, police officers or stand up comedians.If you want them to have their own word for their unions you need to really listen to what you're saying and realize that it sounds an awful lot like "Seperate but Equal." We all know how well that works.

They can vote. They can own property. They can own businesses. What's next? Are these basic rights safe?

And why stop at gays? After all what right do I as an atheist have to be married? It is a contract with God is it not? Historically speaking it is.

This is an important time and it is important the we do the right thing.So don't be like the sad Americans who fought at one time to keep people of different races from marrying (it wasn't that long ago.) Be a hero instead. This is a simple issue of personal freedoms and equal rights. Don't be fooled into thinking you're protecting marriage or family by denying someone else the opportunities that the rest of us enjoy.

Vote No on 8.

I hope to toast you at the party after this is defeated, because them homos, they really know how to throw a party (but I'll supply the music, I promise.)